WPEA Signed into Law, Protecting Federal Food Safety Employees

Millions of federal workers affected

WASHINGTON - Today, the Government Accountability Project's (GAP) Food Integrity Campaign (FIC) is praising President Obama for signing into law the strongest federal whistleblower protections in history. The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) passed the House of Representatives in late September and the Senate earlier this month. This long overdue legislation overturns many loopholes and provides critically important upgrades to weak, current protections.

This law's enactment plays a significant role in food safety oversight, as it better protects those workers charged with enforcing food safety laws – including U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) veterinarians and inspectors, as well as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employees. Over the past several years, FIC has heard from countless federal whistleblowers who desperately want to expose food industry wrongdoing or threats to public health, but chose to stay silent for fear that existing whistleblower protections will not effectively shield them from retaliation.

“Strong whistleblower protections mean safer food. This is a huge accomplishment,” said FIC Director Amanda Hitt. “We’re moving in the right direction. Government workers who serve as the public’s watchdog are now themselves safer from retaliation. Federal food safety employees have finally been deputized to protect the food supply.”

New Protections

Under the new legislation's improvements, a federal employee is now protected even when s/he:

is not the first person who discloses given misconduct

blows the whistle while carrying out job duties

makes a disclosure to a supervisor

discloses the consequences of a policy decision, or

does not have "irrefragable proof" (defined as "undeniable, incontestable, incontrovertible proof") of government misconduct.

An FDA inspector who tries to expose falsification of Salmonella records at a cantaloupe farm

A Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) district office manager reporting frequent complaints by FSIS poultry inspectors that increased line speeds have made it impossible for workers to pull all potentially contaminated birds off the line

An FDA researcher whose attempts at publishing new findings on a controversial food ingredient are stifled by upper management

The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is a 30-year-old nonprofit
public interest group that promotes government and corporate
accountability by advancing occupational free speech, defending
whistleblowers, and empowering citizen activists. We pursue this
mission through our Nuclear Safety, International Reform, Corporate
Accountability, Food & Drug Safety, and Federal Employee/National
Security programs. GAP is the nation's leading whistleblower protection
organization.

Further

Academics are increasingly, ingeniously fighting back against an Orwellian "Professor Watchlist" aimed at exposing "radical" teachers. The list has inspired online trolls to name their own suspects - Albus Dumbledore, Dr. Pepper, Mr. Spock - and a Watchlist Redux to honor not trash targets from Jesus to teachers daring to "think critically about power." Now 100 Notre Dame profs have asked to join the list in solidarity, proclaiming, "We wish to be counted among those you are watching."